More news from today's Nintendo Direct Mini has revealed that Kirby Star Allies will be released for Nintendo Switch on 16th March. And you can actually pre-order it from the Nintendo eShop right now!

The game is set to introduce some brand new copy abilities when it arrives on the console, bringing some fun new ways to play. The 'Artist' ability allows Kirby to paint things to use in combat, as well as giving him the ability to use a paintbrush to attack, and the new 'Spider' ability will allow players to ensnare enemies in webs. You can also mix and match ability combos to create new 'Friend' abilities. Check it all out in the video below.

Ryan’s that annoying kind of guy in multiplayer games - you know the one, the kind of person that throws a temper tantrum if he can’t be Yoshi in Mario Kart or gets stuck with the controller with the dodgy button. Yeah, that kind.

@Hobbesyall Seeing as they didn’t announce anything past summer, I imagine they’re saving some big guns for E3, but Nintendo still should have at least had something else new in their pocket for the first half of the year besides Mario Tennis.

@Galenmereth It tells me they made a poor choice. Things have gone very quiet as far as first party releases are concerned. Now is the time to play some big, important cards, especially if you want to sell 20 million consoles this year. It’s not the time for a “mini” anything.

@JayJ I heavily doubt that we will see a full fledged Pokémon RPG on Switch this year. And even if we will, we know nothing about it. Again, I don’t have any doubts that Nintendo has holiday games planned, but we needed something brand new with a release date to be excited about, and on the first party front they failed to deliver with this Direct.

@thesilverbrick It's the 11th of January, people are still recovering from christmas and new year's sales. The year has quite literally just started. This is as good a time as any for a quick Direct Mini which, if you were paying attention, only showed games coming until May.

It was a little warming up, and it showed some important things like From Software taking on the Switch with Dark Souls.

@Hobbesyall Yep, at least I can take some time to financially recover from last year. And more that I think about it, I’m hoping they don’t go charging 60 bucks for a remake of Tropical Freeze (which was only $50 on Wii U) and Hyrule Warriors (which is being released for the third time).

@thesilverbrick Well Bayonetta 1 & 2 are out in February. So it's not like they have no releases earlier than Kirby.

The problem seems to lie with the fact that they announced stuff a lot earlier than their actual release dates. Whereas Kirby looked like it was ready to come out soon, Yoshi still had some polishing to do (based on the trailer, animations still needed work), and frankly Prime, Fire Emblem, and Pokémon were most likely still in their planning phases.

What are they going to announce, that they wouldn't save for E3? Pikmin also seems like something they'd mention there as well. Only thing that would make sense are titles that are coming up soonish (things we'd have known about or would be easy to put together fast) and ports (since those are generally outsourced).

They are going for the shrewd business approach. Everyone on this site is already out of the ordinary compared to the run of the mill gaming consumers. Wii U ports will not interest most of us. However, can we say the same of the majority of Switch owners? Probably not. Most of these people are either coming from the 3DS or are gamers who used to have time for gaming and invested in a Switch for being able to play anywhere.

Combined with the more core Nintendo fans' tolerance, this is much less of a mistake and more of a well thought out business decision.

@Galenmereth I’m aware of this. And I wasn’t expecting major first-party titles to be released in the next month or so. I’m saying now was the time to play some big cards. And I’ve already said that I think Nintendo has plenty planned beyond E3 and that’s why they didn’t announce anything beyond the summer. Now is not the time to “warm up.” The first party game scene on Switch is essentially dead and quiet at the moment, and the only new titles from Nintendo we have to look forward to in the next six months are a Kirby game we knew about last June and Mario Tennis. Sure, there might be more coming, but what we know about now isn’t exactly going to push people without a Switch to run out and buy one. When you predict to sell 20 million units in a year, I certainly don’t think I am unreasonable to expect a software lineup for half the year to back that up.

@Ernest_The_Crab I’m aware of Bayonetta, but I was referring to Nintendo‘s first party software, which arguably is their biggest selling point. Announcing only two brand new games for the next six months isn’t a great business decision. Sounds an awful lot like Nintendo’s Wii U release calendar, and that’s not particularly reassuring. Do I still think Nintendo will have a good year? Undoubtedly. There’s probably some wonderful surprises in store at E3, but I’m just simply arguing that they blew it with this Direct.

@Zeskyplays Again, I fully expect many more games this year, but they really needed to announce more here and now. Cherry picking Wii U games to remaster doesn’t quite give me anything to look forward to. I was left completely bored by this, and who knows when the next Direct is coming.

Not a huge Kirby fan, but I was on the fence about this title before. Even though the trailer looked good, the announcement that Tropical Freeze is coming to the Switch just a month and a half after this just solidifies a no-purchase from me. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze is one of the best 2D platformers I've ever played, so having it on the go is exciting to me. Sorry Kirby; your new game looks good, but DK is where it's at for me!

@thesilverbrick You do realize then, that Mario Tennis is not actually 1st party? Kirby is the only 1st party title in that list that's coming out soon. It's essentially barren from a true 1st party point of view.

And like I was saying before, these releases don't seem to be targeting most of us here on Nintendo Life. They did not "blow it", as you put it, once you realize that.

EDIT: Also, everyone was too hyped up in the first place. The only reason our Direct was so big last year in January was due to them prepping for the Switch launch in February. That being said, NoA really didn't help matters by adding fuel with their fooling around.

@Ernest_The_Crab Mario Tennis is a first party title in that it is published by Nintendo and features a first-party IP belonging to Nintendo itself. Let’s not split hairs.

Let’s face it, the casual gamer doesn’t watch Nintendo Direct presentations. These are targeted at Nintendo‘s biggest fans, and they should be presented as such. They usually are, to be fair. But given how little we know about 2018, they under-delivered, especially when it comes to new first party games.

@thesilverbrick In the span of one year, we get the best Zelda ever made, the best Mario ever made, the best 2D Metroid ever made, and what appears to be the best Kirby ever made. Oh, and a bunch of great games ported from a system few people bought to a system lots of people are buying. NINTENDO IS DOOMED!

I think they took the right decision in making this a mini Direct.There is already plenty of games announced for 2018, they need to consider first and 3rd parties, cause overall not everyone can buy so many games in so little time.

I'm sure Nintendo will reveal much more throughout the 2018, big events like E3 will be coming up, and for sure more N directs as well.I think there's a big chance that another Direct will take place in March to celebrate Switch 1st birthday.

I doubt It would be so smart to reveal everything in just the first 2 weeks of the year, also this means that we can look forward for more announcements later on.

I am BEYOND excited for this!!!! OMFG I LOVE Kirby and cant wait for this game. Artist kirby is giving me a nice throwback to dreamland 3 and 64. In addition you can be mother freakign spidah man with Spider Kirby. Game of da Century right here folks!

@Anti-Matter epic reaction? Just another fake put on ridiculous over the top YouTube reaction video 😴

Anyways, I'm definitely getting this...I just wish they would release a hard mode. Traditional Kirby games are all pretty familiar from one another and don't always take strides in creativity and innovation, just minor small steps.

@thesilverbrick don't worry too much. Last year we had a Direct on 1/18/17, and Nindie Showcase on 2/28/17, and another direct on 4/12/17, all before e3. Hopefully we get something similar this year. I also have a feeling that e3 will be the best year for variety in a few years.

@idrawrobots So if the past is any indication, we won’t know anything else for at least a month and a half, and even then it will probably be small scale projects. Not exactly reassuring. I’m certain they will have some amazing announcements at E3, but as it stands, the first half of this year looks pretty bad. Not exactly the best half year for a console that wants to sell 20 million units.

@gatorboi352 Nintendo gets overconfident when they hit any kind of success. They rest on their laurels and let it all fall apart. I saw a real effort last year with a major first party title being released just about once a month. As it stands now, seeing as Xenoblade was their last first party retail release (in early December), Nintendo is going quiet for nearly four months until they release Kirby in March. And that’s unacceptable, especially if they expect to push 20 million consoles. And they’re not exactly tied up with 3DS development anymore. Now is not the time to coast, Nintendo. Let’s sustain the momentum.

@thesilverbrick so far Nintendo has only made 6 games for the Switch. 2 of those are not exclusive to the Switch. If you want to talk Publishing they have Published 10 games so far. I am very confident those numbers will be much better this next year. Don't worry so much.

@thesilverbrick It tells you that there will be another full fledged direct soon. A full Nintendo direct usually follows within 20 days of a Mini. Chill. This was only a Mini-Direct. Your expectations shouldn't have been so high.

@AlternateButtons I’m aware this was a “mini” Direct. What I’m arguing is that it should have been a full-fledged one. Nintendo hasn’t released a first party game since early December and since Kirby isn’t due until mid-March, we are talking over three months without any first party retail games. If that sounds familiar, it’s because a gap like that was fairly common during the Wii U era. We have a fairly blank release schedule for the next six months leading up to E3 and this Direct was their chance to put those concerns to rest. Instead they went with a very light update that only gave us one new first party game. Not a great move.

@thesilverbrick I completely agree with you. Since Nintendo stopped making games for Wii-U, I have been expecting that they would be able to fire with big guns for the switch, especially with the prospect of a unified library. For about 1.5 year we got zero games. Last year I was a bit disappointed in januari, but in the end 2017 was a very good year for Nintendo.

But the most important thing is, that they need to keep this momentum alive. I almost know that they wil provide us with some surprises down the road in 2018, however I feel that they had to announce more exciting first party stuff.

If they announced something like diddy kong racing 2, or a new 3d donkey kong, or some other big game i wouldn't feel like I completely bought the wii-u for nothing. I understand that this isn't the place for first time pokemon switch or mp4 footage, but i wan't to get that exciting feeling like when the remaster of majora's mask was finally announced.

I hope there will be a full direct before the end of february, where they can surprise wii-u owners with something nobody is expecting, but what everyone wants.

If this is it for the first half of 2018, I clearly can't see the full potential of a unified library. If they can make the most of this potential than that would be AMAZING.

...just a big LOL in general to "Nintendo blew it with this direct", and all these comments about what Nintendo is doing wrong, or how Nintendo is disappointing them, or whatever. Nintendo didn't lay out a red carpet of every "AAA" title you've ever wanted to see, so now you're kicking sand in the sandbox? Get real. The gaming community that bothers to post on the internet sure is a fickle bunch.

Why not just enjoy the ride? There's already a ton of great content to play on it, more is coming, and amazingly, it hasn't even been on the shelf a year yet. Go grab your switch, maybe even a friend or two, and enjoy it. Every time you sit down at your computer screen to female dog about what you think they aren't doing, grab your Switch instead. It's far more enjoyable.

I am not feeling it just yet, but that was also the case with the first Triple deluxe trailer I think. And MAN was that game good! And then came the awesome Planet Robobot. It will definitely be better then the last couple of "small" Kirby titles, that's for sure!